Iranian Puzzle Rafsanjani is allegedly one of the most powerful men in Iran, having accumulated vast riches during his corrupt tenure and enjoying political power well beyond his station. It was Rafsanjani who was key in ensuring that the Ayatollah`s selected successor never took power, in essence taking part in the co-opting of the revolution for personal gain...or so goes the story.

I have no idea how or why Mahmoud Ahmedinejad came to power...either Rafsanjani is not nearly as powerful as the Iranian ex-pats I know make him out to be, or he is, in fact, committed enough to the system to play ``fair``.

As for the Iranian students, too much is made of them. The uprising against the Shah was in no small part due to the Shah`s widespread abuses across the social strata. The students were a voice that the West could no doubt easily identify with, however were by no means the only voice or the major voice.

I think the results of this election speak louder than the students who agitate against the regime...the poor underclass is fed up and they want action to address their needs. This is make or break time for the regime...if they loose this support base then the revolution is lost.

The Alternative Muslim Identity ShoreSahib,

Here`s a digit for you:



Now ask this guy how American you are...

The Alternative Muslim Identity ShoreSahib,

``I am a Muslim, an American and I wholeheartedly opposed the War in Iraq.``

You know, we in the West do like to tow this line...now I`ll ignore for a sec that I`m Canadian...but really, who are we kidding? The bottom line is you ARE supporting the war in Iraq, like it or not. Your moral stance may reflect the fact that you`re a ``nice guy``, but ultimately means squat.

I choose to be perpetually pissed off at myself for this...well okay, maybe only some of the time. But come on, convincing ourselves that it`s all good....who are we kidding?
Well...whatever makes your stay more comfortable I guess...

Diabetes: Care and Cure Nice article...I was diagnosed type II two years ago at the age of 29...didn`t know it was known that South Aisans in general have a penchance of getting the problem at a younger age.

Doc. proscribed metfomin...it works, but makes you feel like chit. Started taking Chromium pills now too...aside from sounding cool, I haven`t seen any benifit.

On the plus side, I lost 20lbs in a month for eating a lot of sugar (sudden, rapid weight loss is a symptom of chronically high blood sugar levels - NOT a recommended way of loosing weight). Symptoms appeared suddenly too...it`s as if my body just `broke` on me...but then, my sugar intake increased dramatically during that particular period as well.

The Alternative Muslim Identity ana,

``iran is one of the only free lands in the Muslim world?!``

...as in free from hegemony...not as in personal liberties ``free``...and actually, it must be said that it perhaps has the most vibrant political culture in any Muslim state.

The Alternative Muslim Identity A ``political Muslim`` identity? Interesting...this is exactly the identity Islamists espouse...it doesn`t work for them either.

As for the PMU, my God...aside from Ahmed, the lot are a bunch of sarcastic snots. I have a friend who posts to the MWU site using two different aliases, and personas. One is that of a conservative Muslim the other a liberal...says the same thing but the reactions to him are totally different...interesting experiment.

---

Back in 2002 I had a crisis of ``identity`` and ``faith`` of sorts myself...but the other way. Needless to say, I have nothing left but faith in God, it`s humanity that`s bugging the crap out of me. Sadly, there`s no such thing as apostasy from your species...

The Barbarians Within The Gates! There is no denying the desire among common Pakistanis to keep Pakistan a distinctly Islamic state, however that in itself does not define the nature of a theocracy, nor is the fact that Pakistani politicians (wisely) tread softly around Pakistani sentiments on this particular issue explain the otherwise continuing failure of the Pakistanis to form coherent political movements.

We can go on about the Military-Mullah nexus, however at the end of the day it is only the military that matters, and the Mullah happens to be the servant de jour to implement military policy. The military seizes power in a bloodless coup, canceling democracy, and yet somehow religion is to blame because the military happens to use religious rhetoric from time to time after the fact.

Here, religion is seen as the enemy of democracy, yet the fact is the military did not co-opt power solely for the sake of religion, nor was that the a rationale given for taking power, nor do they get support for their appeasement of Mullahs (hint: stability). The author needs to check his fear/hate of religion as it is clearly affecting his ability to digest obvious political realities.

The Baluchistan Issue If the whole is not greater than the sum of the parts, then it is perhaps better be content with the parts.

When you have an agitation at this level and to this extent, the foremost quesiton should be ``what the heck did we do wrong`` and not ``what is the best way to crush this``.

Hey JC, won’t you smile for me? ``Are we ready for radical thought? Are we ready to believe that Jesus was the leader of a faction of Essence priests, that he was not of virgin birth, that he did not die on the Cross?``

What for, and according to what? I mean, the only real source we have are the Gospels, and it takes a hell of a lot of stretching and bending to take the Christ-God relationship out of them. And it must be said, a load of smart people from varying disciplines (and three letters prefixing their name to boot) are trying...however I`m of the opinion that there is such a thing as over intellectualizing something that was written in more or less a straight forward manner.

I mean, we Muslims recast Christ all the time, however a fundamental link to God is still there...that`s simply undeniable. Naw, the idea of the Gospels espousing a Christ that was just another priest seems more far fetched to me than virgin births and miracles do to others here...

So what`s the deal here? The media stunts and books...sounds more like Jesus as a prop for entertainment or an imaginary drinking buddy rather than iconoclasm.

I find the more extreme of these modern recasts of the lift of Christ somewhat like making a marionette out of him and making him dance to our tune of choice...what would Jesus drive? What brand of soda pop would he endorse? Fork or spoon? Boxers or briefs? Missionary or doggy style? Before people break out in an off-tune rendition of ``What if God was one of us``, I gotta say this idea of surrounding the aura of religious figures such as Christ with the banalities of our modern existence gets tired really quick...

Christ as an ordinary human...who the hell needs that?!? There are already 5 billion + of us. Transcendentalism is out of fashion...fine...why take it out on Christ?

Hey JC, won’t you smile for me? ``Jesus Christ died a normal death after escaping his cave like grave. There is enough evidence to suggest that. ``

What kind of evidence? In any case, requiring to escape from a grave is hardly a `normal` death...:-)

Must Reads on the Middle East Prof. Lewis: what went wrong?

I think slapping the label of being `pro-Zionist ergo anti-Muslim` on his work is a bit facile, since it is quite scholarly (in form, at least).

Reading his book isn`t entirely a waste...it`s actually quite informative. Where Prof. Lewis goes terribly wrong is when he tries to draw links between contemporary conflicts in the Muslim world (or even it`s state of regress) to events that happened centuries, or even a millennia, ago. That is to say, the body of his work is quite good...it`s his conclusions that are borderline ridiculous.

Dr Abdus Salam - The ’Mystic’ scientist Two wives...interesting...it is said that Erwin Schrodinger thought up the wave equation while spending some time with his mistriss in the Alps.

Of course, the latter is perfectly acceptable becaues gora-sahib is never wrong...

The Troubled History of Jews Romair,

I know a few Russian Jews myself. The ones I know tend to be quite fanatical in their support for Israel...although they had some charming tales about being extended great courtesy by Muslims in Central Asia during Soviet times...some real horror stories about the conduct of Russian troops during the Afghan war as well. Despite our political differences, I can`t help but think how similar our mindsets are. That`s not necessarily a good thing for either of us, of course.

From what they tell me, their migration is all about finding jobs. Although Israel has capital and industry (esp. high tech), it simply doesn`t have enough jobs to fill the amount of skilled labor coming in from the ex soviet republics. How`s the tech scene in Toronto now days anyway?

The Real Blasphemy ``This is the thin end of the wedge. Once the sharia boards are available, Muslim women will be under tremendous pressures to use them unless they wanted to be considered as less than true beleivers.``

Rubbish. The fact of the matter is, these arbitration committees will be scrutinized like none other...not only by the likes of Tarek Fatah who make a career out of monitoring ``conservatives``, nor only a skeptical media...but the court system itself. If there is ANY pressure on anyone, it`s on the members of the committee to save themselves from embarrassment.

In any case, not a single reasonable argument has been posited as to why a Muslim family wouldn`t push for a Shariah settlement in the secular court system even in the absence of such committees, or through mandated pre-nups (an Imam can, theoretically, deny a marriage ceremony if a couple refuses to go through with it).

The arbitration committee’s sole responsibility is to have two parties come to an agreement...not to dictate terms. If this concern of undue pressure on women to accept the unacceptable (or forgo appeal) had any validity, we would have hints of this tendency from our own secular courts, and possibly even more drastic reactions such as conservative religious leaders at the vary least advocating Shariah-compliant pre-nups.

The Real Blasphemy ``if he had incited violence or harm to Muslims in any way he would be wrong and hate speech would apply. He did not.``

Well, obviously he DID. Having seen the film (it was online for a while) it was apparent that the whole purpose of this film was to solicit an angry response, rather than make some kind of political statement. There are many more constructive ways to make those kinds of remarks. Quranic versus on a women`s breast, and an unnecessarily long focus on them to boot, have zero intellectual value vis-a-vis the treatment of women in ``islam``. Zip. A fictitious story with an exaggerated (in the sense that it was *intended* to be a blanket criticism of an entire religious culture) account has zero intellectual value. Zip. Nadda.

Noooo, this is not to deny that problems don`t exist. However, by no means should we excuse the bigots who would use these problems as nothing more than a stick to beat a people they hate. Never.


``He criticized the treatment of women in Islam and the religion itself.``

For shit`s sake, he called Muslims ``goat f*uc*ers``...this pretty much sums the guy up. He was a bigot...he shouldn`t have died for that, but why is it so hard to call a spade a spade? That he was exercising free speech does not at all mean he was an intellect or that he had no alternative motives other than discussing the issue...and when a man suggests that
deporting Muslims en mass is a-okay...we should at the very least give pause.

Van gogh was at best a right wing clown, and now the murder (as they always do) make a mediocre personality into a hero. He was a bestial person, so I can`t really mourn him in all honesty, however his death was uncalled for and condemnable...never mind the damage it caused to Muslims in the end.

The Doll’s House AlehNull,

``And finally ‘K for Kafir’ is known to occur in Urdu qaidas in Pakistan. ``

K is an Urdu letter? Wow...I`m realy behind the times...